Judge says court is not entitled to restrain reporting of Dáil business

A high court judge has said it is clear it is not entitled to restrain fair reporting of Dail utterances.
Mr Justice Donald Binchy said it was never his intention that an order preventing publication of Denis O’Brien’s banking arrangements with IBRC would be construed in that light.
He will later decide whether his judgement from 2 weeks ago should be published in an unredacted form.
Media outlets including RTE and The Irish Times are in court over uncertainty about whether they could publish comments made under Dail priviledge last week by TD Catherine Murphy in relation to the businessman’s banking affairs light of the injunction.
Today’s ruling means that media outlets are now free to publish the comments made by Deputy Catherine Murphy.
Up until now most media outlets have been relying on their own legal advice not to publish the statements which were made under Dail privilege.
Last Thursday, Catherine Murphy said that the former CEO of IBRC Mike Aynsley made verbal agreements with Denis O’Brien to extend the terms of his already expired loans.
Deputy Murphy went on to say that the agreement was never approved by the credit committee, and she went on to discuss what she called the ‘favourable’ interest terms;